The ggspatial package has a few different basemaps you can choose from.

Required packages

This example uses the following packages:

library(tidyverse)
library(ggspatial)

Sample data

Here’s a map of bus stop in San Luis Obispo, California.

ggplot(slo_stops) +
  geom_sf() +
  theme_void()

This is totally meaningless. A basemap would help my audience orient themselves.

A vector layer as a basemap

I want to note that you can often get away without a basemap. For example, I could add a layer of roads, and that might be enough to orient my reader, especially if they are familiar with the area. Less is more, and all the detail that comes with a basemap image might only serve to clutter up your map.

ggplot(slo_stops) +
  geom_sf(data = slo_streets,
          color = "gray") +
  geom_sf() +
  theme_void()

An image basemap

The ggspatial package can also add basemaps to your map using the annotation_map_tile() function. Here is is with the default basemap from OpenStreetMaps.

ggplot(slo_stops) +
  annotation_map_tile() +
  geom_sf() +
  theme_void()

The image looks a little blurry because the default is to give you a lower-resolution image to that the map will load faster. You can fix this by setting zoomin = 0.

ggplot(slo_stops) +
  annotation_map_tile(zoomin = 0) +
  geom_sf() +
  theme_void()

Alternative basemaps

You can select a different basemap using type =

Here are some options.

hotstyle

ggplot(slo_stops) +
  annotation_map_tile(type = "hotstyle",
                      zoomin = 0) +
  geom_sf() +
  theme_void()

stamenbw

ggplot(slo_stops) +
  annotation_map_tile(type = "stamenbw",
                      zoomin = 0) +
  geom_sf() +
  theme_void()

stamenwatercolor

ggplot(slo_stops) +
  annotation_map_tile(type = "stamenwatercolor",
                      zoomin = 0) +
  geom_sf() +
  theme_void()

cartodark

ggplot(slo_stops) +
  annotation_map_tile(type = "cartodark",
                      zoomin = 0) +
  geom_sf(color = "yellow") +
  theme_void()

cartolight

ggplot(slo_stops) +
  annotation_map_tile(type = "cartolight",
                      zoomin = 0) +
  geom_sf() +
  theme_void()

There are some other cool ones that requre a (free!) API key, but I have not figured out how to pass an API key to the annotation_map_tile() function. Let me know if you figure out an easy approach!